Valentine's Day
by FishtheMighty
Summary: Roderich tries to express his feelings towards Elizavéta, but one decision she makes causes this to be more difficult.


February 14th

Roderich's grip around the tiny bouquet of flowers tightened as he approached the area where Elizavéta was training. His stubby fingers left dark green imprints on the delicate stems as he forced his feet to carry him towards her. Elizavéta turned her head up when she saw him,

"Hey Roderich!" Roderich stiffened at the sound of her saying his name and felt his face flush. Thrusting out the slightly wilted bouquet in his hand, he turned his gaze to the side, not wanting to look her in the eye.

She raised an eyebrow and set down her sword, "What's this about?" she traced a petal with her leather covered finger causing Roderich's face to flush further at the close contact.

"It's Valentines Day so..." Roderich couldn't finish his sentence. Elizavéta stared at the flowers,

"Sorry, but I'm not gay." she said, her voice not even changing its tone.

"_You're not a boy!_" Roderich shouted in his head. Though Elizavéta was clueless about what was happening to her body, Roderich, and everyone else he knew, was certain that Elizavéta was a girl. Roderich often wondered is his attraction to her was based off of real love, or the fact that she was one of the few girls he knew.

He knew it was love though.

Elizavéta slashed a straw dummy's with her sword and Roderich dropped the flowers while turning around to walk home.

...

February 3rd

The strength Elizavéta showed in battle greatly translated to her cleaning and cooking styles. Though Roderich felt guilty hiring his former friend as a maid, he was amused by the way she would basically attack a stain on the carpet, or a piece of meat. She was a warrior, and no amount of aprons, dresses, or broomsticks would ever change that.

When he knew she wasn't looking, he would watch her. Admiring the way her long brown curls fell down her shoulders, getting in the way of her work. He knew he was still in love with her. And this time they spent all their days under the same roof, and Elizavéta was finally aware of her gender.

When Valentines Day finally rolled around, Roderich didn't want a repeat of that incident when they were children, but he needed to express his feelings for her somehow.

On the evening of February 14th, Roderich called Elizavéta into the music room. He sat at the bench of his grand piano, his fingers twisting awkwardly in his lap. He felt like his hands were going to cramp up; a feeling he never felt before while near his piano.

The door opened and Elizavéta made her way to the piano. Roderich scooted over, signaling her to sit next to him, and after a moment of hesitation, she sat down.

Closing his eyes, he placed his hands on the keys and began to play. The notes rolled together to form a song he has written just for this night. Weeks were spent writing, editing, and fixing the song. He must have thrown away dozens of sheets of blank sheet music in the process, but it had to be perfect.

The song came to a close. Roderich dared to open his eyes again, praying Elizavéta didn't walk out. To his surprise, he found her sitting there next to him, her eyes glistening and a small smile was formed on her lips,

"Uh...did you write that song for me?" she shyness in her voice was flat out adorable to Roderich, but to his dismay, he blurted out,

"No, I just wanted your input." A sinking feeling his Roderich's stomach as the words left his mouth. The shyness tracing Elizavéta's features was quickly replaced with a look that Roderich could have sworn was relief,

"Well it's very beautiful." she grinned at him, and his heart sank at the realization that he failed another year, "I'm going to go to bed." She casually got off the bench and walked back to the door.

"Sweet dreams, love." he said back, but he doubted she heard him. When the sounds of her footsteps were gone, Roderich slammed his forehead against the keys.

...

June 8th

Roderich didn't know what to feel when he got the news from his boss. On the one hand, he was going to marry Elizavéta. _His_ Elizavéta. But then, their marriage was not going to be based on love. Roderich tried to force every ounce of love off of his features when he stood in front of her at the alter; he couldn't make it too obvious. But the sight of Elizavéta wearing a beautiful silk wedding dress and looking straight at him made this a bit more difficult.

He needed to look at something else. He averted his eyes to one of the pews and locked eyes with Vash. A frown was planted on the face of his former best friend, and Roderich couldn't help but to feel insulted when he rolled his eyes. When probably the most awkward ceremony ever came to a close, he heard the priest say the last words; the sentence that Roderich was dreading, and anticipating, throughout the entire ceremony. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he leaned in closer to Elizavéta, and placed his lips on the side of her mouth, hoping that it looked like he was actually kissing her on the lips to the people in the pews.

The rest of the wedding was torturous. Not just because there was so much chaos in the room, but he was silently beating himself for not taking the chance to kiss her when he had it. Elizavéta was obviously eating up all the attention she was getting, but Roderich just wanted to crawl into a hole and die, or at least be alone playing his piano.

...

February 14th

The divorce affected Roderich more than it should have. It wasn't based off of love, but he couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling in his gut when he signed the last paper.

But that was years ago. Even so, Elizavéta still hasn't finished moving all her stuff out of his house. Roderich didn't mind though; he enjoyed having her presence lingering throughout his home.

It was when Elizavéta dropped the last box on his counter to rest her arms when she asked him the question;

"Roddy...do you ever get sick of this?" she leaned on the box with her lower arms, pressing her torso into the counter. The question surprised Roderich,

"Sick of what?" A whole list of possibilities rained through his head. Was she sick of being away from him? Unpacking her stuff? Gilbert? But the truth caught him off guard,

"Being a country. I hate it." Roderich froze up,

"You're not seriously considering_" Elizavéta looked at him sadly,

"Yes, I am. Am I crazy for that?"

Yes! Roderich yelled to himself. Though he didn't know how the procedure worked, any one of them could chose not to represent their country anymore, someone else would just replace them later. But the thing that bothered Roderich most about her choice, is that once one makes this decision to give up their role as a "country", they would have all their memories of being a "country" replaced with memories of being a normal human.

Elizavéta would forget about their friendship, their marriage, and him.

"You're not crazy, but you do know about your mem_" Elizavéta nodded,

"I know the sacrifices I have to make, but I want to be a normal human. Living for thousands of centuries can be a bore after a while." With those words still haunting Roderich's mind, Elizavéta straightened, up, picked up the box, and headed towards the door,

"Oh and, happy Valentine's day." she smiled at him and shut the door, leaving Roderich, alone with his thoughts.

...

February 16th

Roderich's hand began to sweat nervously around the phone he held. The phone rang seven times with no answer. Part of Roderich was glad he didn't have to say this straight to her face, but the other half was scared she wouldn't even get the message.

The chirpy sound of the operator telling Roderich to record his message just irritated him, and the blaring sound of the tone rang through his eardrums, why was I more sensitiva to sound when I was depressed? He complained to himself.

"I don't want you to go through with this, for a rather selfish reason." Roderich paused, "I-I always wanted to be more than just friends with you, but I never had the courage." Roderich winced as if he just got hit in the gut, "I love you, I don't want you to forget about me and...I'm afraid to lose you."

He didn't remember when he hung up the phone, but he did eventually. Thirty scary moments of no reply went by, before the sound of the phone ringing hit his ear. Roderich nearly leapt from the piano bench, and grabbed the phone,

"H-hello?" Roderich felt his whole body tremble, not sure of the reaction he was going to get.

"What the hell was that?" Roderich's jaw dropped,

"V-Vash?"

"What was with that voice mail you sent me?" Roderich searched his brain for an appropriate response,

"I meant to send that to Elizavéta..."

"Listen, this is why you and technology just shouldn't...wait, did you say Elizabeth?"

Roderich knew it was rude to hang up on someone, but that didn't stop him, he had no time to talk to Vash now.

Making sure he had the right number now, he dialed. The phone rang and rang, and once Roderich was considering giving up, he heard on the other end,

"_The number you requested is no longer in service"_

Roderich dropped the phone in defeat; he was too late.

February 14th

When Roderich was given eternal life, he learned to stop keeping track of days or years; that's what humans were for. After a while, it becomes tedious. Years would just pile up to become decades, then centuries, then millenniums and it was just too much for Roderich to handle. So, Roderich obviously didn't know how long he was away from Elizavéta, and frankly, he didn't want to know.

Valentines days were the worst though. Every pink paper heart, box of chocolates, and red roses were just a reminder of his failure. Every night was haunting him with the question of where she was, and was she happy? He needed to know.

One night of February 13th, he sat at his computer, an internet search engine pulled open. The flashing black bar seemed to mock him with questions such as: why was he doing this? Will he succeed in finding her? And, what will he do when he does find her?

Pushing those questions into a far corner of his mind, he typed _Elizavéta Héderváry._

The map the search gave him didn't seem to be the most reliable, but he found his destination after an hour of searching. Parking on the other side of the road, Roderich just stared at the house Elizavéta apparently lived in now. The house was simple, but it looked comfortable. The lawn was well manicured, and a few nicely trimmed hedges grew at its sides-this wasn't a house Roderich expected her to live in, but it was nice.

But what really disturbed Roderich were the few children's toys laying on the grass. _Oh don't tell me..._

A car pulled up into the driveway and a woman wearing a simple black suit stepped out of the driver's side. Roderich knew right away this was Elizavéta. She was older, middle aged, to be exact, but Roderich didn't care, he was just happy he could see her again.

A man stepped out of the house and offered her a bouquet of roses- or at least that's what it looked like to Roderich from the car-, and two small children ran from behind him and grabbed on to Elizavéta's legs, pulling her down to their eye level.

This was too much for Roderich. Practically slamming on the gas, he drove away, and vowed to never come back.

...

January 9th

Roderich felt selfish for how he acted. It was a long time ago, but he couldn't help but to feel bad; Elizavéta was happy, and Roderich was angry because of that.

"_I need to approach her."_ Roderich thought. After many hours of putting it off, he drove back to the same house he was trying to avoid. The house for the most part looked the same, but the toys were gone, and the hedges were slightly uneven. Gathering up his courage, he walked up the sidewalk, and knocked on the door.

The door creaked open, and a little old lady stood hunched over in the doorframe, Roderich didn't know what to say,

"E-Elizavéta?" The woman squinted her eyes,

"Yes, and who may you be?"

"My name is Roderich Edelstien." Just leave. Go home, she doesn't remember you.

"I remember you!" Roderich was stunned, but how... "Didn't we go to high school together? But you look so young!"

Roderich took off his glasses, hoping his tears weren't that noticeable, "yeah, we did. Where's your husband?" Elizavéta suddenly looked sad,

"He's no longer with us."

"And your children?"

"Moved away."

Roderich didn't know what to say, "I'm awfully sorry."

Elizavéta shrugged, "well that's life!" she smiled at him, and Roderich couldn't help but to see the Elizavéta he grew up with in that smile.

"I-I have to go now." he waved at her,

"Alright, you be careful now!" The door shut, and Roderich felt the weight that was just lifted off his shoulders, be replaced with another one.

...

February 14th

"_I know the sacrifices I have to make, but I want to be a normal human. Living for thousands of centuries can be a bore after a while."_

_Was it really worth it, Elizavéta? I doubt it. _

The news didn't strike Roderich as real until he was standing there, the crude stone jutting from the earth, false flowers littered around the stone, her name engraved into the rock. Roderich sat down, and placed the bouquet on the cold soil. He was hypnotized by the stone, not sad per say, but confused. Why would she want this? She had the option to live forever, and she replaced it with this?

Roderich looked up, he heard stories about people who heard the voices of their deceased loved ones when they looked to the heavens; nothing.

It was then when Roderich began to cry. Bent over on his knees with his hands pressed into the rough soil, he wept on her grave, glad no one was there to wittiness this.

Roderich got up, gave the stone a loving caress, and whispered,

"_Happy Valentines Day"_


End file.
